Endless bucket elevator



F, E. TOWNSEND.

ENDLESS BUCKET ELEVATOR. APPLICATION FILED MAY 5. 1919.

1,383,248. e ted June 28, 1921.

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F. E. TOWNSEND.

ENDLESS BUCKET ELEVATOR APPLICATION FILED MAY 5, I9I9.

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F. E. TOWNSEND. ENDLESS BUCKET ELEVATOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 5, I919.

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I APPLICATION FILED MAY 5, 19H). 1 3 3 24 PatentedJune 28,1921' 5 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

IN VEN TOR f. E. TOWNSEND.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FLOYD E. TOWNSEND, OF BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO EUGENE G. PALMER, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

ENDLESS BUCKET ELEVATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 28, 1921.

Application filed May 5, 1919. Serial No. 294,713.

T 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FLOYD E. TOWNSEND, citizen of the United States, residing at Berkeley, in the county of Alameda, State of California, have invented a new and useful Endless Bucket Elevator, of which the following is a specification in such full and clear terms as will enable those skilled in the art to construct and use the same. i

This invention relates to a car unloading machine, although it is applicable for many purposes where material is to be transferred from one place to another, and its object is to transfer the material from a place such as a car to a wagon, bin, chute or carrier as may be required.

An object of the invention is to produce a car unloading machine which will have a considerable scope of action without being moved from a given position, although the truck upon which the carrier is mounted may be moved from place to place should that be necessary, two moves, however, being all that are required to completely unload the ordinary gondola car.

A further object of the invention is to provide means whereby the endless bucket elevator used for elevating the material such I as coal, broken rock, sand, gravel or grain may be raised or lowered and extended to ward or away from the carriage'upon which it is mounted.

Another object of the invention is to provide means whereby the carrier may be moved longitudinally of the trucln upon which it is mounted a considerable distance without the necessity of moving the truck, suitable hand or power operated mechanism as may be desired being provided for shifting the endless carrier from one position to another.

Another object of the invention is to provide means'whereby the endless carrier or elevator may be extended away from the truck or brought closer thereto as may be desired from any position the arm carrying the carrier may occupy in its movement longitudinally of the truck upon which the elevator is mounted.

Another object of the invention is to raise or lower the arm carrying the endless elevator from any position it may occupy during its longitudinal movement along the truck, all of the operating mechanism being located adjacent one end of the drive shaft for the convenience of the operator, although in the present instance no illustration is shown of the switch for controlling the main driving motor since that forms no part of the present invention.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawings in which the same reference numeral is applied to the same portion throughout, but I amaware that there may be modifications thereof.

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the truck and arm for the support of the elevator not showing the elevator leg.

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the complete machine with a portion of one of the supporting posts broken away for purposes of illustration.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the complete machine.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the endless elevator frame supporting arm.

Fig. 5 is an end view of one of the bearings for supporting the endless elevator carrying arm.

Fig. 6 is an edge view of the bearings shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view on the line 7-7, Fig. a, showing the support for the guide wheels for the chain, for extending and retracting the elevator leg.

Fig. 8 is a side elevation of the chute upon which the material elevated is discharged.

Fig. 9 is a side elevation.

Fig. 10 is an edge elevation of the drive sprocket for the endless elevator.

Fig. 11 is a view in elevation of the bail for raising and lowering the elevator arm.

Fig. 12 is a side elevation of one of the hand wheels for traversing the elevator leg.

Fig. 13 is an end view of the frame carrying the wheels for traversing the elevator leg and for moving its support longitudinally of the main truck.

Fig. 14: is a plan view of the frame shown in Fig. 13.

Fig. 15 is a side elevation of the swivel pulley used at the top of the frame.

The numeral 1 indicates a suitable truck bed which is provided with a plurality of caster wheels (2) for supporting it, said wheels being of such size as isrequired to carry the load put upon the truck. Extending upwardly over the truck are four posts (3 to 6 inclusive) which are connected together at their top by cross-bar 7, the cross drive the chain bar being substantially over the longitudinal center'of the truck frame.

At one endof the truck there are posts 8 to 11 for the support of a platform 12. At one side of the platform there is a revoluble drum 14 mounted on a bearing 15 on the platform 12, and in a bearing 16 on the post 6. This drum has a gear 17 at one end thereof in mesh with a pinion 18 on a shaft 19, the latter shaft being mounted on the top of bearing 15,, and in a bearing 20 on the post 6. This shaft 19 has a crank 21 and pawl wheel 22 which enables the operator to wind or unwind the cable 23, which passes through a swivel block 24 on the platform 1 and through the swivel block 25 carried by the slidable position swivel block 26 on the rail 7. The end of this cable is then connected with a bail 27, which supports the elevator arm 28. Y

The elevator arm comprises two longitudinally extending bars 30 and 31 which are connected together by means of webs 32 and 33, the latter of which has openings 34, 35 and 36 therein to provide bearings for the shaft 37 and for the axles of two guide wheels 38 and 39. The arm 28 is also connected together at its ends by means of the short shafts 40-41, the latter of which carries a swinging bracket 42 for a purpose to be presently explained! The arm is supported by means of two flanged bearings 43 and 44 which are revoluble with respect to said arm and which are held in place there on by means of bearing box covers 45 and 46.7 These two bearing blocks are slidable on a heavy square shaft 47 which extends from the bearing 48 to the bearing49, and which has the pulley 50 on one end thereof, which pulley is driven by the belt 51 from motor 52. In order to hold the driving sprocket 53 inits proper place bracket 54 is bolted on the side of the member 30 to hold said sprocket in a fixed positionwith respect to said arm whereby it will properly 55 At the outer end of the arm 28 the elevator leg is mounted and it consists of two side members 57 and 58, which are secured to two members 59 and 60, which have long hubs extending through the side members 30 and. 31 respectively and ex-v tended flangesto be connected to said members 57 and 58. These members form bearings for the pivotal movement of the elevator leg and they also form bearings forthe shaft 40, which carries the sprocket wheel 61. This shaft also has a sprocket wheel 62 thereon between the two elevator leg members 57 and 58 for the support of the end less elevator chain 63, which chain carries suitable buckets 64 for the elevation ofthe materialsto be handled. The side members of the endless elevator leg are connected-to gether by means of blocks 65 and 66 to give that member greater rigidity and with their 'ter of which has a pawl wheel 97 rigidther lower members they each carry a box 67 which boxes are adjustable by means of the screws 68 to tighten or loosen the chain 63 as it passes under the sprocketwheel 62. Also in order to prevent the buckets from 7 digging into the floor of the car or bin in which the elevator is workingtwo curved guards 69 and 70 are provided at the lower end of theelevator leg. These guards are connected to the elevator leg on both sides 7 by means of member 7l,straps 72-73 and curved end 74 of the guard. In order to swing the elevator leg outwardly from truck, it is provided with two links 75 and 76, which links are in turn connected with two 3 links 77 and 78 and'pivotally connected at their upper ends to the elevator leg supporting arm. Links 77 and 78 are also connected to the two links 79 and 80, in turn pivctly connected to the lower end of the 8,

shaft 37 also has a flanged sprocket wheel 9( 86 on its end, which sprocket wheel is closely adjacent to the peripheries of the sprocket wheels 38-39, and which small wheels 3839 hold the endless chain 87 in engagement with the sprocket wheel 86. The chain 87 passes over 2 grooved wheels 8889 which are carried by bearings 9091, capable of rotating on the bearings 48 and 49. Bearing 91 is provided with an arm 92 which carries a weighted pawl 93 which is adapted to engage the teeth of the pawl wheel 94 to hold the chain 87 in any desired adjustment. The bearings 48 and 49 also support the flanged chain wheels 95 and 96, the latwith and which is held'in a given adjustment by means of pawl 98"precisely the same as the pawl 93 on the arm 92,'the pawl being mounted on an arm 99 on the opposite side of the bearing 49from the arm 92; It will be observed that the bearings 48 and 49 are mounted underneath Stringers48', 49, which are bolted to the posts 3-4 and 56.

In operation the entire elevator'and its supporting arm are raised and lowered by the operation of the crank 21; The elevator leg is shifted toward er away from the truck by the operation of-the hand wheel 89, and chain 87, the ratio of the chain and gears being such as to afford convenient operation by hand, and the pawl 93 holds the elevator leg in any desired adjustment. Simil'arly a chain 100 which passes over the wheels 95-96 has one run thereof connected to the depending bracket 42, and as the wheel 96 is turned it will cause the entire arm 28 to move" inone direction or the other along .the shaft 47. The pulleys 2526 moving along the beam 7, and since in practicethe height of beam 7 is considerable, the angle made by the cable with the elevator leg supporting arm to the pulley upon the beam and pulley upon the platform 1 is not suflicient to seriously disturb the operation of the apparatus. Two arms 101-102 support a chute 103 which chute delivers the materials dumped out of the bucket 6a to any suitable place, as, for instance, a wagon or other chute or a bin.

It is to be observed that as the arm 28 is raised or lowered that wheels 88 and 89 may be moved as much as may be necessary by reason of the fact that they are mounted upon an arm which is revoluble peripherally about the same axis as shaft 47, the same as the arm 28. It will of course be understood by those skilled in the art that the height of the frame on the truck may be varied at will and that the length of the elevator leg and its supporting arm may be varied to suit the requirements of the particular work so that it is possible to use this apparatus either as a machine for unloading career for loading earth, ore, grain or other materials from the pile upon the ground into any suitable receptacle. The position of the chute 103 is determined by means of a cable 104, by which it is connected to the arm 28.

It is also to be understood that the position of the pulley 2a with respect to the most distant end of shaft 47 is such that the angle from the bail 27 to the swivel pulley 25 and back to the pulley 24: will be about evenly divided with respect to the position of arm 28 when at the opposite end of the shaft 47, thereby minimizing the side pull of the cable 23 upon the arm, 28.

What I claim is as follows, but various modifications may be made in the construction shown in the drawings and above particularly described form, within the purview of my invention:

1. An endless bucket elevator comprising the combination of a truck, a tower thereon, a horizontal drive shaft on the tower, an

arm slidable along said shaft, means to adjust the arm to different positions along the shaft, means to raise or lower the arm, an endless elevator leg supported by the arm, means to swing the elevator leg toward or away from, the truck, and means to operate the elevator from the drive shaft.

2. An endless bucket elevator comprising the combination of a truck, a tower thereon, a horizontal drive shaft, an arm slidable along said shaft, means at one end of the shaft to adjust the position of the arm, an endless elevator leg supported by the arm, means at one end of the drive shaft for swinging the elevator leg, toward or away from the truck, means to raise and lower the arm and elevator leg, and means to operate the endless elevator from the drive shaft.

3. An endless bucket elevator comprising a tower, a horizontal shaft carried thereby, an arm slidable along the shaft, means to raise and lower the arm, an endless elevator leg carried by the arm, means to drive the endless elevator from the horizontal shaft itnd means to advance or retract the elevator 4c. An endless bucket elevator comprising tower, an arm slidable along a revoluble shaft supported by the tower, means to raise or lower the arm from one end of the tower, an endless elevator leg carried by the arm, means to drive the endless elevator from the arm supporting shaft, means to extend or retract the elevator'leg and means to move the arm along its supporting shaft.

5. An endless bucket elevator comprising a tower, a horizontal shaft supported there by, an arm movable along said shaft, means at one end of said shaft for shifting the arm, means at one end of the shaft for raising and lowering the arm, an endless elevator leg carried by the arm, and means to extend or retract the elevator leg.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 25 day of April, A. D. 1919.

FLOYD E. TOWNSEND. 

